Disclaimer: Don't own RWBY or anything associated.
A Hero's Legacy
Part II - Jaune's Horribly Eventful Day
"This place is even bigger than it is in the pictures," Jaune observed, "It's definitely a step up from Signal Academy."
"Well," Yang put in from beside him, "There's a lot more students here than just those who graduated from Signal so it makes sense that it'd need to be bigger, plus I think there'll be more subjects being taught here too."
"Signal was just the beginning," Jaune agreed quietly. Jaune's gaze turned back to the weapon's pommel gleaming against the light from the top of his shoulder. The same weapon he himself had forged during his time at Signal, the same weapon that had seen him through so many encounters up until now. His father had wanted him to take Crocea Mors, but Jaune couldn't bring himself to. Yes, the family's legacy meant a lot to him but Jaune knew he needed to carve his own path to honor that legacy not replicate it verbatum.
"Surprised your old man let you bring Ascalon instead of the family blade," Yang said, noting where Jaune's gaze was focused.
"Me more than you," Jaune agreed, "But I think he's secretly happy that he's going to be allowed to hold onto it for a little bit longer since I don't think he's as ready to retire as he'd have my mother believe. The look of horror on his face when Qrow had the audacity to mention it was beautiful."
"Who knows, maybe your mom'll finally convince him that it's time to start slowing down. Though, I can't imagine that myself. I would find it too strange to hang this all up," Ruby piped up from Jaune's other side.
"Maybe it's cause we're all still so young all we can see is the excitement of what's to come in front of us?" Jaune presented, finishing his walk down off the ramp to the airship alongside Ruby and Yang, smiles on all of their faces, "I can't imagine retirement either but we've still got our entire Hunter careers in front of us so it wouldn't be realistic for any of us to want to skip to end of it. Since we've yet to enjoy all the things we signed up to do this for."
"You're right. The thrill of seeing new places and fighting new monsters doesn't seem like the sort of thing that anyone who was skilled and able would ever want to give up, unless the body wasn't able to keep up as much as it used to. Totally can understand why your dad's struggling to let go of all this. I'd hate the thought of giving it up if I was in his shoes."
"He's reduced the amount of mission he's taking while there's still kids at home but you can tell that he desperately wants to get back out there sometimes. You should've seen his face when mom finally let him start training me. Looked like the holidays had come a year and a half early."
Laughing, the three of them moved away from the landing ramp so that the other students could get off the ramp as well. Yang would eventually wave her sister and Jaune off when she spotted her friends, informing them that she would save them both spots at the ceremony. Jaune and Ruby, who were used to this kind of behavior from Yang at this point both laughed and went off to find the auditorium as well as something to do until the time for their orientation began. Unfortunately for Jaune and Ruby, there something to do came in the form of a girl with snowflake white hair tied into a side ponytail and crystalline, almost ice-like blue eyes. Ruby had accidentally crashed into her luggage and things had just gone downhill from there, ending in the girl storming off and another, much darker hair girl who came to intervene on his and Ruby's behalf moving off in the other direction.
"Well, Welcome to Beacon," Ruby sighed.
"Best place for young Huntsman and Huntresses," Jaune added, eliciting a sigh of his own, "C'mon, we've probably not got much time until the ceremony so we'd better make a point to find the Auditorium."
"Where do you suppose it is?"
"No clue, but I figure if we follow the other students we'll end up there eventually."
Jaune saw Ruby nodding and taking it as a sign that she didn't object to this plan, he caught side of the general direction that most of the students were taking and fell into step behind them, using their path to determine the one he and Ruby would take in pursuit of the auditorium. Before long they'd caught sight of the large building and were able to file their way inside. Yang called out to the two of them as soon as she'd spotted them and they waved back, moving over to take the spots on either side of her that she'd saved for them.
"Thanks," Jaune murmured.
Yang turned her head between the two of them, "What happened to you two?"
"We ran into some trouble," Jaune murmured.
"More like trouble ran into us, I can't believe I exploded."
"Are you being sarcastic?"
"I wish. I wasn't watching where I was going and tripped over some Crabby Girl's luggage and then I exploded. I just wanted to her to stop yelling at me!"
"YOU!"
"Oh no, it's happening again!"
Jaune, following his father's wise advice when it came to women fighting and took a step back, trusting Yang to handle this better than he could. Weiss came across as someone intimidating at the best of times and privately he felt that none of his training could have ever prepared him for an encounter such as this one. Luckily for Jaune, it seemed that the Headmaster, Ozpin had chosen this moment to make his way up the stage so that he could make his start of year speech. Though his father hadn't revealed anything about the initiation he did tell Jaune that Ozpin opened the year with a speech each year.
"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge," Jaune's internal musings were cut short thanks to the timely appearance of Beacon's Headmaster, Ozpin, who'd just taken the stage to deliver his speech, "to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. (as the students whisper among themselves) You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."
Jaune's head tilted curiously. That was certainly out there. What was this guy drinking? Jaune was almost sure that wasn't coffee in the steaming mug gripped in Ozpin's hands. Was it some kind of hallucinatory tea or something? Well, he supposed only time would tell. Though, the way the elderly man clutched that mug, Jaune doubted he'd discover the answer to that question any time soon.
"Tonight you will gather in the ballroom," the figure of Glynda Goodwitch said, advancing toward the platform as Ozpin stepped away from it, "Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready."
The ballroom? Well, Jaune supposed that made sense. They'd not been placed in teams yet so putting them all in dorms for one night then having to rearrange everyone the following day made absolutely no sense so he could see their reasoning. Personally, Jaune couldn't wait for initiation to start. After that, there'd be no more awkward getting to know you conversations, no more collisions with Weiss, and he could finally focused on what mattered. Showing the staff that he could kill Grimm efficiently and deserved his spot at this academy.
"Jaune, you coming?"
Yang's question pulled Jaune from his thoughts and he nodded, "Yeah, I'm coming. Let's go."
Jaune pushed the doors to the ballroom open, and immediately his eyes sought out an empty space. Strangely enough he seemed to be one of the first ones here, meaning that pretty much the entire room was open for him to sleep wherever he wanted. The room seemed to have no distinctive set up, so he took a sleeping bag two rows away from the windows on the far left and lay back against it, placing his hands behind his head. Jaune didn't notice the time passing, he'd been lost in his thoughts and feeling a tap on his shoulder caused him to jump slightly and turn his head to sharply glare at...Ruby?
"Ruby?"
"Hey, Yang's gonna be here soon, figured I could steal the two spots next to you for her and I, since I don't really know anyone else here, so..."
"You're more than welcome to take those spots," Jaune said, jerking his shoulders into a shrug and then moving his head back to the spot it was at originally, staring at the ceiling that was so far above them all. Should he be this nervous? Probably not, but given how much the initiation decided of one's life in Beacon, the importance was sitting at the forefront of Jaune's mind and he couldn't seem to shake it. So much was riding on tomorrow...
"You okay Jaune?" Ruby asked quietly.
"Yeah," he murmured back, "Just thinking about initiation tomorrow. The nerves are finally settling in a little bit."
"Well, being nervous is good right? Dad always tells me that t's part of caring how something turns out, or something... heh."
"Well, he's never steered us wrong before," Jaune agreed, "We'l just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings then, huh?"
"Looks like it," Ruby agreed.
Jaune fell back into silence, closing his eyes slowly. Though Ruby had mentioned that Yang would be with them shortly, it didn't entirely seem like the brawler was in any hurry to join them. Perhaps it was the stress of the coming initiation or just an exhaustion from the long couple ofdays he'd had before today but Jaune had closed his eyes and fallen asleep before Yang had even arrived. If you were to ask Jaune what he thought, he would've said that the rest he'd had the previous night didn't feel like it was enough. He felt it to be a situation where it was like his eyes were re-opening the moment he closed them.
Jaune also wondered why he was so nervous today when earlier the previous day adn during the weeks leading up to his arrival at Beacon he'd felt nothing but confidence. Perhaps the impending nature of the situation had reared its ugly head and was forcing him to feel this way. Forcing a sigh out, Jaune clambered out of the sleeping bag he'd used the previous night and rose to his feet. He couldn't allow the nerves to get the best of him now. He'd trained for this, he'd perfected his styles and approach as best as he could with the lessons he'd learned and now it was time to apply it. Without pausing to check if any of the others were awake yet, Jaune quietly snuck out of the ballroom into the locker room behind it.
"Six three six?" He said, the memory of his locker striking him almost immediately, he vaguely thought that he heard a comment about drinking milk, but not quite yet rid of his grogginess Jaune phased out most of the interactions within the locker room, intent on reaching his own and getting ready for initation, only there was an impedence in the form of two girls having a discussion directly in front of his locker. He vaguely remembered the white-haired girl having a one-sided shouting match with Ruby the previous day within the auditorium and Jaune privately found himself hoping that whatever unfortunate sap ended up teamed with her wasn't named Jaune Arc.
"Excuse me," he tried softly. Evidently Weiss and the other girl were wrapped up in their conversation and were showing no signs of having heard Jaune's interruption. Well, they were pretty engrossed in the conversation so it was probably his fault for speaking so queitly, "Excuse me, I need to get to my locker," he said in a louder, more pronounced voice.
"Oh it's you," Weiss said distastefully, then she quickly moved aside. The girl to her side shot Jaune an apologetic look, but she didn't say anything and from what it looked like Weiss was surprised to see Jaune walk past the girl without sparing her so much as a second glance and a mumbled apology about his locker.
"Excuse me, do you not know who this is?"
Jaune turned his head to the red-head and shrugged, "Another first year hopeful trying to pass initation? What's the big deal, there's like thirty of us?"
Weiss looked incredibly insulted by Jaune's answer for some reason, yet the other girl had lit up so much that one could be forgiven for making the mistake of thinking Christmas had come early. Her emerald-toned pools that had almost been dull with boredom moments before had now become alight with joy and no short amount of admiration being thrown in Jaune's direction. Seeing as it didn't seem like the girl was going to introduce herself Weiss took it upon herself to wave a hand in front of her and do the introduction for her.
"This is Pyrrha."
"Hello again."
"Er, hi there," Jaune said, placing his hand to the back of his head sheepishly, "It's nice to meetcha."
"Likewise, Jaune."
Clearly this wasn't going the way that Weiss intended, if the tic mark on her forehead was anything to go by. He took the chance of silence to remove his gear from inside the locker and adjusted everything he needed to, making his final preparations for what was to come.
"She's a four-time Mistral Champion."
"Champion, huh?" Jaune questioned, "Well, little Miss Ice-Queen. I'm sure that Pyrrha has the skills to back up that title and if she's a champion in Mistral that means she likely had good reason for choosing Beacon Academy over her native, Haven. One of which likely includes obsessed little fangirls like you."
"How dare you!?"
Jaune shrugged, doing a double check to make sure that his weapon was steady within its scabbard. After saying goodbye to Pyrrha and pointedly ignoring Weiss, Jaune crossed the locker room to join Yang and Ruby at their lockers.
"You guys ready for this?" he asked softly.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Ruby murmured, "I'm sure the initation itself will be okay, but-"
"The whole team thing is daunting? Yeah, I feel that."
"Oh, quit panicking," Yang informed them both, "I'm sure you'll be fine."
"Easy for you to say," the two of them grumbled in unison to Yang's retort. Any further discussion about this topic was put on hold thanks to the interruption of Miss Goodwitch's voice rolling through over the PA system.
"Would all first year students make their way to Beacon Cliff for initiation, I repeat: All first years to Beacon Cliff for Initiation."
"Showtime," Yang stated, hitting the knuckles of both fists together. Jaune wished he could share in all of Yang's excitement. Jaune closed his eyes and nodded to steady his nerves then turned around to face the exit of the locker room. Whether Jaune was ready or not, it was time to face down what was to come.
"For years you have trained yourself to become warriors," Ozpin began, "and today your abilities will be evaluated inside the Emerald Forest."
From beside Ozpin, Glynda Goodwitch cut in, "By now, I'm sure you've heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Allow me to put those rumors to bed. You will all be given team-mates. Today."
Jaune listened intently to each and every word that was spoken, right down to the instructions that followed. So, all they had to do was go land in the Emerald Forest somewhere, find a partner and then go with said partner to collect a relic all the while fighting opposition along the way and if they were somehow alive by the end of it they'd be graded accordingly? Seemed straight forward enough. Hearing Yang's whoop of joy from beside him, Jaune pushed his left foot backward then kicked off the platform right at the second it launched him, propelling the Arc at least four meters higher than the others. In that moment the nerves disappeared. In that moment, everything washed away as if with the help of a stream of water.
This was where he shone. Nothing could put a damper on this moment - and he better sort out his landing strategy right quick before something went splat, namely him. Jaune whipped his sword out of the scabbard behind him then clicked a button right beneath the cross-guard to engage the mecha-shift. The shotgun style sword extended to its full length and Jaune pushed his feet up onto it, using the blade as a flying surfboard. His classmates had descended quite a bit quicker than he had thanks to his extra height, so he wasn't too worried about hurting anyone else whilst pulling off the move. Narrowing his eyes with focus, Jaune removed the second weapon from the scabbard strapped to his back and positioned it at the ready. Jaune kicked his feet up and flipped the blade over, spinning down like a windmill. He just had to create the perfect angle, this move would be extremely dangerous if he didn't have the exact trajectory he needed.
Once he was at the angle, Jaune threw his arm forward and hit the button on the second weapon. A loud metallic sound could be heard as the sword split itself down into a more vented form and Jaune used this to throw the blade out, the blade extending into a whip, the blade parts connected by chain-link. The chain descended rapidly through the air and encircled itself around the trunk of the tree. A dull thunking sound confirming to Jaune that this part of the move had been successful.
Now all he had to do was halt his momentum before he hit the ground. Shouldn't be too much trouble...right? It would be difficult to employ the right amount of strength into halting him without simply ripping the tree out of the ground and going splat all over the floor of the Emerald Forest but he should be able to manage, right? Jaune descended with less and less speed until finally he came to a complete halt. The halt was caused by a crash into something rather, in Jaune's opinion, softer than he was expecting. He didn't think a tree trunk or the ground below would be as-
"Get the hell off me, you dunce! What the hell was that!?"
End Chapter.